Communication Skills for the Technology Pro
2024TL; DR
Learn the key communication habits and behaviors of IT professionals which result in improved outcomes for their team, and growth in personal influence and credibility.
Session Details
What sets apart the most credible, trusted, and influential members of an IT team from the rest? What habits and behaviors do they exhibit that result in being treated with respect, while other team members of equal technical skill on the same team are virtually ignored? While technologists are often analytical and data-driven in our work, we are rarely systematic about interpersonal communication and soft skills. This session will teach you how to bridge those gaps.
One of the most fundamental practices among successful data professionals is self-awareness. We will help, through personality profiles like DISC, MTBI, and StrengthFinder, to help reveal your own preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. With that foundation, we move to best practices in communication, such as listening and questioning skills. Finally, we cover a variety of difficult conversations and common conflicts and the communication techniques that help navigate those situations successfully.
These lessons, in turn, build your confidence and influence in interpersonal situations, while enabling you to personally achieve new heights of productivity and greater personal effectiveness.
One of the most fundamental practices among successful data professionals is self-awareness. We will help, through personality profiles like DISC, MTBI, and StrengthFinder, to help reveal your own preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. With that foundation, we move to best practices in communication, such as listening and questioning skills. Finally, we cover a variety of difficult conversations and common conflicts and the communication techniques that help navigate those situations successfully.
These lessons, in turn, build your confidence and influence in interpersonal situations, while enabling you to personally achieve new heights of productivity and greater personal effectiveness.
3 things you'll get out of this session
Speakers
Kevin Kline's other proposed sessions for 2026
Query Tuning Internals for the Advanced SQL Developer - Part 1 - 2026
Query Tuning Telemetry for the Advanced SQL Developer - Part 2 - 2026
Stop Firefighting! How to Beat the DBA Burnout Crisis - 2026
Kevin Kline's previous sessions
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Database code often works well in a test environment, but end up causing significant performance issues when rolled out to production. In turn, these performance issues lead to lost productivity, excess resource consumption, and lost time spent troubleshooting the issue. But what if we could catch those issues during development? Join Kevin Kline to learn how SolarWind's SQL Sentry can shift performance tuning left to the dev cycle so those issues never occur on production systems in the first place.
SQL Horror Stories
Join Kevin Kline as he takes you on a guided tour of some of the worst and most horrible SQL coding experiences. Some were intention and some were accidental. But all of them will make you wince and laugh! Learn new SQL coding tips and tricks from these cautionary tales.